Jacob/Cruz @ A New Leaf
We here at Fig Media like to create fairy tales, especially when it comes to weddings. Considerably, we are the wand-less, black-clad godmothers and fathers of our events, creating magic with every song, every shot, every shutter press, and every breath. It is quite interesting how each of our gigs are like stories, complete with enough action, conflict, and a smidgen of romance to satisfy even the most pickiest reader. This past weekend, another tale was developed. The very captivating Chicago venue known as A New Leaf was the setting for the elegant wedding reception of Stacey Jacob and Michael Cruz, complete with candles, scrumptious food, and beautiful guests. My partner Eric Anderson, as well as myself, were the musical magicians for this function, and it was up to us to create a memorable soundscape for this evening. However, no necromantic spell or paranormal ritual was needed to make this night successful.
Now, every tale needs a few characters. (Thank goodness this one did not involve talking mice.) Enter Stacey and Mike, the main players in this narrative. Just like the divergent lovers from Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, this couple was definitely two worlds apart: She is a friendly, bright-eyed actuary from Ohio who studied abroad in France, and he is a relaxed and unassuming IT specialist from Guam. How Mike proposed was a fairy tale in itself, as he planned a romantic clue-laden quest for Stacey ending in a Chicago park, a la Amazing Race. I met them both months before the event and got to know who they were and what they wanted. That's a big key in being a "fairy godfather." I was to make sure that their special evening ran smoothly, as well as generate a dance party that would bring envy to Belle and her beast. To the day of the event, I felt confident and prepared to do just that.
Alas, like all typical fairy tales, there is a notable amount of drama. A misplaced shoe, a poisoned apple, an seemingly ineraseable curse. Luckily, deejays do not have to worry about any of these happenstances. Eric and I had a very interesting setup: Our table was located on the second floor in front of the balcony facing the dance floor. For cocktails and dinner, I would have our two speakers facing away from the table to the first floor. For dancing, we would have our cords pre-laid and taped and our stands pre-positioned so that when the time came to transition from dinner to dancing, we would only have to set up our stands, move our speakers to the dance floor, and connect the other cords to the mixer. (Believe me, it's much less bewildering when it's seen in person.) To make this all happen, the dancing configuration had to be set up first. During the time Eric and I were doing this, I came across the unfortunate discovery that one of our speakers was not projecting any audio. After switching cords and testing knobs and such, my conclusion was that the right master XLR output (in layman's terms, the hole where you plug in the cord that connects the speaker to the mixer) was not working. This was not the kind of news that I wanted to digest—especially with the fact that I had not changed and there was less than an hour before cocktails started. Eric, being the selfless person that he was, went all the way back to Fig and obtained a 1/4" jack-to- male XLR connector. I was banking on using this later on in the night, while one of my fellow deejays Jon suggested that I daisy-chain the speakers for cocktails and dinner, which worked beautifully. The cool sounds of downtempo French jazz and soothing Hawaiian music gave the guests an appreciable chilled-out ambience. Eric did the majority of the stellar spinning, while I floated around, communicating with the couple, the photographers, and various other faces. No one noticed that we had a glitch or a moment of panic faintly surrounding us.
The time for dancing finally arrived. This is when the true "magic" was going to come into effect, as it usually does in most stories of such. While Eric detached and set up one of the speakers on the dance floor, I walked over to the back of the mixer and connected the 1/4" to one of the main outputs. There was no sound. I then tried the other outputs, but to no avail. Pooh. Jen, Stacey's sister and the matron of honor, came up to me and stated that they were "ready when we were." The family, the bridal party, and Stacey and Mike themselves began to crowd near the deejay table. If there was ever a time when I needed some fairy godfather power, it was certainly now. In this circumstance, I went for what I knew would work: I kept the one speaker that was connected to the working XLR output and used that as the only speaker. If that scare wasn't enough, as soon as I pressed the play button, nothing came out of the working speaker. Quick thinking told me eject the CD from the left deck and put it into the right one, and from there, the couple and family dances began. As if his hands were richly spirited, Eric made sure to prop the speaker on a stand, and he also discovered that the RCA inputs of the first deck (the lovely red and white connectors that allow the CD deck and mixer to be linked together) were loose. With that, we continued the entire night of dancing with one speaker—a first in my book. I didn't think about daisy-chaining the speakers during dancing, which would have been a great idea, but I decided to focus my mind on the music. This night marked the first time I ever deejayed a dance portion alone. The main genres I spun were soul, Motown, current hip-hop and R&B, and a bit of Latin and reggae music. The night ended a bit after midnight, on which I ended on a beautiful Hawaiian song entitled "Somewhere Over the Rainbow/What a Wonderful World" by Israel Kamakawiwo'ole. I originally was going to play it as a "clean-up" song, but it turned out that everyone stayed on the floor to enjoy it. Such beauty.
As you've probably seen in animated shows or children's storybooks, fairy godmothers and fathers aren't exactly perfect with what they concoct. Regardless of that universal truth, they come out on top and make great things happen. It took a profusion of patience, positivity and calmness to handle all the stress-inducing occurrences that happened tonight, and to make it appear as if everything was hunky-dory. Eric and I did that, even if the finished product was not as super-glamorous as one could imagine. In the end, Stacey and Mike were very gracious for our work, and we received many nice compliments for our music. I was even noticed for my skills on the microphone. How many real-life fairy godfathers can say that? In this fairy tale, it was not the plucky heroine or the less-than-handsome underdog that was the focus—it was the deejays. And, like the quintessential fairy tale, this event contained that one special expectancy: A happy ending.
- Brent Rolland, resident deejay
Special thanks to John Wagner and The Hearty Boys for a marvelous international meal, to the lovely Gina and Tara from Imaginative Studios for being awesome, easy-to-work-with people, and to everyone at A New Leaf for being such gracious hosts. Thank you all!
